Forty is Just a Number

What can I say about "Flirting with Forty" other than here is another movie which sees an older woman falling for a younger man a scenario which has been done countless times before and to be honest done better in other movies. But whilst nothing amazingly new or original "Flirting with Forty" is fun with Heather Locklear and Robert Buckley having great appeal if not entirely believable chemistry.

With her ex husband dating someone much younger and her 40th birthday not far off Jackie Laurens (Heather Locklear - Angels Fall) finds herself on holiday in Hawaii when her friend Kristine (Vanessa Williams) decides she needs to get away. Much to her surprise she finds herself on a date with 27 year old surf instructor Kyle (Robert Buckley) after he rescued from being hit on by a businessman. The date turns into more as they end up in the sack and then the next day spend it on a romantic sight seeing trip around the island. When the holiday is over Jackie returns home and finds her girl friends disapproving that she had a holiday romance with a 27 year old but she gets a call from Kyle who wants her to return to Hawaii. And so she does many times but then on one of her romantic getaways she gets a call to say her daughter has been in an accident leading to more complications.

So as I said "Flirting with Forty" is just another movie which runs with the older woman younger man scenario and does nothing really new with it. We get to see the various issues which spring forth from this situation from friends disapproving, ex husbands being hypocritical and of course the obligatory doubts over whether this is right. It's not that it tackles any of the expected cliches in a bad way just a predictable way with the storyline unravelling in a pretty predictable manner.

So what does that leave, well there is Robert Buckley who once you get over the shock of seeing him heavily tanned is solid but unremarkable as he plays it sensitive in a typical manner. And then there is Heather Locklear who in fact was mid 40s when she took this movie and looks absolutely amazing. But the trouble is that both Buckley and Locklear have characters that are cliches with no great depth and to be frank no great chemistry as whilst they work well together you don't really get sucked in to their romance. This ends up making "Flirting with Forty" a movie which often ends up about how they both look be it Buckley's toned torso or Locklear looking smoking hot.

What this all boils down to is that "Flirting with Forty" isn't a bad movie, in fact it is watchable but it works through a familiar scenario and doesn't do anything new with it.